Why Did the Future Arrive First in Russia? | Peter Pomerantsev

Подписаться 45 тыс.

Просмотров 6 тыс.

50% 1

In Episode 229 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British journalist, former TV producer, and author about the break-down in belief systems and shared mythologies that we are experiencing in the West and why this has left so many people feeling increasingly cynical about the world and indifferent towards the future.
Peter was early in his diagnosis, having first experienced this phenomenon during his time living and working in Russia. It was not long after that experience and the publication of his first book “Nothing is True, But Everything Is Possible” that he began to notice some of the things that he wrote about in that book-the cynicism, the sense of surreality, the nostalgia, and what he described as an “aggressive apathy”-showing up in Western countries. And he began to ask himself the question, “Why did the future arrive first in Russia?”
This is the question that we seek to answer in today’s episode, because some of the same forces that were operational in the late-Soviet Union and in early post-Soviet Russia are at work in Western societies today. If we want to understand what the future might look like when trust in institutions has completely deteriorated, when grounding notions of identity and meaning have all but disappeared, when any independent standard of truth has become so elusive that people are willing to believe in anything and the only thing left to unify us is raw and unbridled power, then we would be wise to not only understand the path that Russia has followed in the last several decades but to do everything in our power to avoid following it any further. It leads to only one place and that is a postmodern, repressive society that uses the language and institutions of democratic capitalism for authoritarian ends.
You can access the full episode, transcript, and rundown to this week’s conversation by going directly to the episode page at hiddenforces.io/ and clicking on "premium extras." All subscribers gain access to our premium feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.
If you enjoyed listening to today’s episode of Hidden Forces you can help support the show by doing the following:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | RU-vid | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | CastBox | RSS Feed
Write us a review on Apple Podcasts at apple.co/3fLSIgR
Write us a review on Spotify at spoti.fi/3tv4zYr
Subscribe to our mailing list at hiddenforces.io/newsletter/
Subscribe & Support the Podcast at hiddenforces.io
Follow Hidden Forces on Twitter: / hiddenforcespod
Follow Demetri on Twitter: / kofinas
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas
Episode Recorded on 01/14/2022

Опубликовано:

23 янв 2022

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 17

@Tiago_R_Ribeiro 10 месяцев назад

Wow... That was deep.

@stephenhill545 9 месяцев назад

Thank you for your explaination of conspiratal thinking. Im baffled by how many intelligent people go down that path, and your idea of it filling a void is a good idea.

@judithgervais2566 2 года назад

This conversation provides one more heuristic for our covid times. I'm at the midway point and find myself saying, "This is what has been happening with the pandemic." Of course Putin went for the media first, creating his own kind of 'trusted news initiative.'

@henriikkak2091 9 месяцев назад

Bottom line: We need positive visions for the future and constructive dialogue on how to get there because loss of faith in the future leads to cynicism and nihilism (the state that e.g. Russia is in).

@andrewm6786 2 года назад

wow, this was a monster of an episode. favorite guest in a while.

@nickkacures2304 2 года назад

I am listening to your preamble to this broadcast and I want you to know I have been waiting for this conversation for ten years. I hope you go where you are hinting at Ill catch you again at the end of this and let you know how I feel about interview

@HiddenForces 2 года назад

Glad to hear it. Did we measure up to your expectations?

@nickkacures2304 2 года назад

Yes It was more disturbingly prescient than I expected with Russia ramping up its military to stop Ukrainian annexation into NATO I am a carpenter and follow current events as good as anyone I do remember the fall of the Soviet state quite well and feel like we were to arrogant at the time even Zebigneiw Brzezinski (I spell checked ) who I really trusted and Henry Kissenger who I didn’t place much trust in said at the time that adding Ukraine and other eastern block countries to NATO is tantamount to missiles in Cuba

@nickkacures2304 2 года назад

I was sanding floor treads on a staircase as I was listening I wished it lasted longer I made it almost to the bottom of the stairs and yes our future has arrived in Russia and I see how Putin is playing chess while we play checkers. Putin was very unhappy and dejected with the fall of and embarrassment of the collapse of the Soviet Union and would love to hurt us in a similar fashion. He has prepared well but will have to weigh if it’s worth it .he will not miss a chance to inflict pain when we are weak

@michaelfried3123 2 года назад

@@nickkacures2304 and now 2 months later, Putin has Russia swirling the sewer drain of history and everything we thought about a "mighty Russian military" has been exposed as a hoax.

@0013dancer 2 года назад

@@nickkacures2304 , yes, when we get weak leaders like biden (

@schumzy 2 года назад

heard your pre-amble like the other commenter, and all I could think of was the warning around letting social media and tech companies create echo chambers so they can sell ads. We are literally breaking into our own dystopia just to sell ads. All in the name of "progress". What I always feared was this in turn to be weaponized by politicians, which it has in the west.